This may have been mentioned elsewhere... the council have just completed moving all of their staff out of Overseas House (and moved them into One First Street) as part of their property rationalisation project. I'm not sure who that leaves in terms of tennants, or what that means for the future of the building...

Don't think this was posted from Bruntwood's annual report last month,

Quote:

With an eye to the ongoing and future needs of our customers, we have a number of major schemes planned for 2012 within the existing portfolio including Overseas House, Portland Tower and Bank Chambers, as well as keeping an eye open for other opportunities in the marketplace.

App submitted at the end of last year, only validated recently(?), looks like Bank of East Asia are opening a branch here.

Quote:

3 - 5 Charlotte Street Manchester M1 4HB

Change of use to Class A2 (Financial and Professional Services) and elevational alterations in association with the refurbishment of building including recladding of building and creation of roof top pavilion

Ask Developments' chief executive Ken Knott has outlined a flexible office concept for First Street in Manchester city centre.

Ken Knott and Ian Simpson at Mipim 2012
Speaking at the Mipim property convention in Cannes, Knott said the new office buildings will be highly sustainable and competitively priced, with rents up to 30% lower than the prime central business district.

He said the unit sizes will be capable of being subdivided and interconnected vertically and horizontally to create an infinite number of options.

Knott said: "The concept was conceived as 'shared platforms', much like automotive production. The innovative energy efficient base chassis of each building can be used in a variety of configurations tailored to a specific activity or can perform equally well in its base model format. Internally, tall, airy spaces with floor to ceiling windows interspersed with useful working walls can be combined with street level space and public and private amenities."

Ask Developments plans 1m sq ft of office at First Street, a mixed-use development anchored by a 50,000 sq ft arts centre incorporating the merged Cornerhouse and Library Theatre Company and a 208-bed, 4-star Innside Hotel from global hotel group Meliá Hotels.

The UK’s Green Investment Bank, which aims to kick-start investments in low-carbon technologies, will be located in both Edinburgh and London, Vince Cable, the business secretary has announced.
The bank’s headquarters will be in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, while its main transaction team will be based in London.
More

The cities beat competition from 30 other urban centres– from Leeds in the north to Torbay in the south - to host the state-owned bank which is designed to accelerate private sector investment in areas such clean energy and recycling.

Mr Cable told the Financial Times that Edinburgh had been chosen because “I wanted to make a very strong commitment to rebalancing the economy” by establishing the headquarters outside London.

He said the Scottish capital was strong in asset management and close to a lot of green industrial developments, while London would host the transaction team because it was a “unique centre of excellence” for project finance.
Over time, Mr Cable said transaction expertise could build up in Edinburgh or elsewhere.

He said the political need to shore up the union between Scotland and England did not influence the decision. Manchester had come third in the evaluation and if it had come second “we would have been looking at Manchester”.

Asked whether the headquarters would have to move if Scotland became independent, he said that was an “unlikely and unwelcome” eventuality and would affect a number of UK institutions, such as the Glasgow-based Student Loans Company.

But Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, who backed the Leeds bid, criticised the decision to base the headquarters in Scotland.
“At a time when Scots are considering their destiny, we should be retaining this sort of investment in England,” he said.

Mr Smith also said that it was “disappointing” that the North of England had missed out to London.

“I think we do need to get away from London being the default option,” he said.

Although the bank will employ only about 70 people, bidders hoped that it would lure green businesses wherever it was based.

Michael Moore, the Scottish secretary, said he was “delighted” the bank’s headquarters would be in Scotland. “The size and scale of the UK’s single energy market ensures the level of investment that will unlock Scotland’s renewables future, providing sustainable and affordable green energy across the UK,” he said.

The bank will have £3bn to lend over the next three years and, from April 2015, should be able to leverage a further £15bn.

It is expected to prioritise finance for offshore power generation, waste processing and recycling, energy from waste and non-domestic energy efficiency. It will also support the Green Deal, the government’s home insulation programme.

The bank will recruit a chairman and senior independent director in order to be able to be fully operational this autumn, subject to state aid approval from the European Union, the business department said.

Not surprised. It does smack of a sop to the Scots faced with a referendum on devolution.

What stood out from the article even more was the reminder that the Student Loans Company is based in Glasgow EVEN though Scottish students don't have to pay them.

So they get a double benefit: they don't have to pay university fees AND they get the benefit of the jobs created by fleecing English students! England gets all the costs and zero benefit.
That has to be taking the piss on a grand scale.

How about a referendum for the English on devolving itself from Scotland at the same time - shouldn't we have our say too??

Edinburgh is the second largest financial centre in the country and close to where much green energy will be produced.

Why can such decisions like this never be accepted for what they almost certainly are?

Simply because we are ambitious for our own city. The right to question decisions like this is part of our DNA - it makes us what we are. We are as contrarian as you are perversely counter-contrarian; in other words we are contrarian for the sake of simple civic chauvinism you are counter-contrarian for its own sake - you like it. I don't really care what you think Cats to be honest its just the obsessive badgering of other posters that I find such a bore. Can you not make your 'the technocrats know best' point once and just leave it at that and spend the rest of your evenings writing them sycophantic congratulatory emails?

Simply because we are ambitious for our own city. The right to question decisions like this is part of our DNA - it makes us what we are. We are as contrarian as you are perversely counter-contrarian; in other words we are contrarian for the sake of simple civic chauvinism you are counter-contrarian for its own sake - you like it. I don't really care what you think Cats to be honest its just the obsessive badgering of other posters that I find such a bore. Can you not make your 'the technocrats know best' point once and just leave it at that and spend the rest of your evenings writing them sycophantic congratulatory emails?

Which of the Dept for Business criteria do you think Manc was ahead of Edinburgh (our London)?

It's hardly unheard of for politicians to choose the criteria to deliberately fit the cities they have in mind.

I can understand Edinburgh but London is a typically lazy choice. Whenever one of these new departments or agencies spring up, the government should be looking to move it to any city other than London by default.

It's hardly unheard of for politicians to choose the criteria to deliberately fit the cities they have in mind.

I can understand Edinburgh but London is a typically lazy choice. Whenever one of these new departments or agencies spring up, the government should be looking to move it to any city other than London by default.